.

Only weeks after her Senate confirmation, Susan Monarez has been forced out as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The development is the latest in a string of significant shakeups for the beleaguered public health agency.

The Washington Post was first to report her departure, based on several Trump administration officials it did not name. When Ars Technica inquired with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency referred us to a post on its official X account, which stated:

Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov ,who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Crucially, the agency gave no reason for the sudden dismissal. The Washington Post, however, reported that Monarez was repeatedly pushed by the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to rescind her approval of COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy, a well-known anti-vaccine activist, told her she needed to reverse course, but she refused without input from the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees. He then told her to resign, telling her she had not done enough to support former President Donald Trump.

Monarez declined to resign. Instead, she reached out to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who had helped shepherd Kennedy’s own Senate confirmation earlier this year after extracting assurances from him. Cassidy spoke to Kennedy about Kennedy’s demands, and the two had a “heated argument.” Administration officials then told Monarez that she needed to resign or be fired.

In a statement posted to social media by her lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, Monarez is quoted as saying that she “has not resigned and the White House has not delivered any termination notice.” “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” the statement continued. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” Zaid later told Ars Technica that as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27, Monarez had still not received an official notice of termination.

CDC at a Breaking Point

Monarez’s Senate confirmation in late July was itself seen as a breakthrough. Approved by a 51–47 vote on a strict party-line basis, she became the first CDC director to be subject to Senate confirmation after legislation passed in 2022 mandated it. Kennedy himself presided over her swearing-in on July 31, lauding her “unimpeachable scientific credentials” and saying he expected her to restore the CDC’s reputation.

Monarez’s résumé was extensive and distinguished. The 49-year-old holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology and recently served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under the Biden administration. Previously, she had worked at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council. She also briefly served as the CDC’s acting director earlier this year before stepping down upon Trump’s nomination of her.

Experts in public health had welcomed Monarez’s appointment. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University called her a “loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, described her as a “solid researcher and a strong manager.”

But any goodwill for Monarez’s leadership has been overwhelmed by the agency’s turmoil. The CDC has been losing hundreds of staff through layoffs and buyouts, while a raft of programs have been cut or otherwise set back. Kennedy himself has been a source of tension for his own frequent incendiary comments, including calling COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made” and denouncing the CDC as “a cesspool of corruption.”

On August 8, tragedy struck when a man radicalized by vaccine misinformation began shooting on the CDC campus. Rounds were fired until he ran out of ammunition, having fired a total of nearly 500 rounds, about 200 of which struck six separate CDC buildings. One local police officer was killed, and many others were forced to take cover for their lives as staff members scattered. The shooter had posted about his own health problems being the result of vaccines, and had targeted the CDC as a result.

The revelation of Monarez’s reported ouster has come in the middle of a cascade of high-level resignations. Stat News independently confirmed that three high-level officials have resigned: Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In a message of departure, Daskalakis wrote, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry’s note to colleagues underlined that science must “never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

The same day, Politico had already reported the resignation of Jennifer Layden, who had led the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

As the list of resignations from within the CDC grows, and its problems continue to pile up, many inside and outside the agency say they are seeing it at a nadir it had not known in recent years. The bedrock of evidence-based public health in the US is now battling political interference, high-profile defections, and a growing crisis of confidence at a time of rising public health threats.